A number of guileless males have rightfully incurred the wrath of their interview subjects of late for borderline sexist encounters.
Need we remind you of the New York radio station that inappropriately grilled Iggy Azalea about being assaulted at her concerts and “intruded” by her boyfriend, taking a page from the tasteless playbook of Aussie shock jock Kyle Sandilands, who similarly quizzed Lorde about having a lesbian relationship with a fellow pop star.
Well, the latest in this rather worrying trend comes from that most historic of ‘girly mags’, Playboy, who have come under fire from Neko Case after writing a feature on the American singer-songwriter, as Junkee reports.
Picking up on a tweet about the Playboy feature – which doesn’t involve Case directly but instead pieces together quotes from previous interviews – the musician took issue with the description of how she is “breaking the mold of what women in the music industry should be.” What followed was a series of hilariously snarky tweets from Case lambasting the publication over their gender stereotyping.
@PlayboyDotCom Am I? IM NOT A FUCKING “WOMAN IN MUSIC”, IM A FUCKING MUSICIAN IN MUSIC!
— Neko Case (@NekoCase) May 21, 2014
“[She’s] more thoughtful and mature and funnier than the typical female artist types, she’s also not trying to ape the hunter-gatherer characteristics of her male counterparts,” the Playboy scribe writes of the New Pornographers member (oh, the irony), praising her voice as “sexy but also filled with longing and power — Case can sound both feminine and masculine.”
“Fact is, I’m not doing any of that shit, just working til my balls are ground down to nubs,” Case tweeted in her angry responses to the article (“Feelin’ killy..“), along with a natty pop culture reference to Mad Men.
@PlayboyDotCom GET WITH THE NOW, PUSSY-SHAVERS! — Neko Case (@NekoCase) May 21, 2014
@robomeerkat @JenKirkman @PlayboyDotCom DONT PEGGY OLSEN ME, MOTHERFUCKERS.
— Neko Case (@NekoCase) May 22, 2014
And no, I didn’t read it. Wouldn’t be able to get past “Woman in..” if I had no idea who I was, which is the point; women NOT a niche market — Neko Case (@NekoCase) May 22, 2014
To be fair, it’s not just @PlayboyDotCom who do the “Women in…”, everyone still does it, WOMEN do it. I can’t hang.
— Neko Case (@NekoCase) May 22, 2014
There’s been a wave of similar sentiments from other high-profile musicians in recent months.
As well as the aforementioned Iggy Azalea and Lorde incidents, the sisters of Haim said labelling them as merely a “girl band” is “an insult”, Sydney-via-LA producer Anna Lunoe grilled lazy music media labelling after she “lost it” at a journalist who compared her to Miley Cyrus, Splendour-bound Sky Ferreira also tackled the “vile, sexually abusive” comments she regularly receives, while last year, Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry wrote a touching opinion piece about the ugly misogyny she regularly faces, followed closely by a sophisticated and striking anti-sexism editorial from Lorde about her swift rise to fame.